Blogs from Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 2

Day 14 This morning we both woke up before the 10am alarm, surprisingly! I laid on my bed for a while, not daring to put my feet to the floor for fear of falling over! When I did finally pull myself together, I did a bit better than I expected to! Tom is also suffering, but he seems to be going better than me. We are still in awe of last night. It was just so good to have the three of us back together again, although we did miss Judy! We finally managed our last cold shower, and to get our bags packed ready for leaving. The man at the hotel was reasonable; he let us leave our bags there until we leave. I thought that was good of him considering we got him up ... read more

Day 13 Today was a lazy 8am rise, followed by another cold shower. I feel cleaner than before I got in, but not as clean as I would like to feel! Our aim today is to see the Dhobi Ghats, Dharavi Slums and Mani Bhavan - Ghandi House. But first, breakfast at Cafe Monde. Ghandi House was successful, but the Dhobi Ghats was not what we expected! The driver knew I was not happy. He took us to look over to a bridge to take a photo! We sucked it up, and started again! Before we set off for the second time, we had a treat in Cafe Coffe Day, the most incredible chocolate cake with ice cream, accompanied by a luscious ice cream drink! We got another tour person for Dharavi, but he also agreed ... read more

Day 12 New Years Day..... Wwooaawww. We had an unbelievable experience watching New Year's Eve unfold last night. Incomparable to the events that may have occurred if I had spent it in UK! I can safely say that we enjoyed the diversity that this culture offers. Today we opted for an 8 0'clock start. Given that we were drinking last, night I was not sure if I would be able to manage it, but I did! Today we are flying to Mumbai. We took s tuk tuk to Chudi, then the local bus to Margoan, then changed bus to the airport bus. It was a very easy journey that cost 60 rupees each, instead of 1000 each by taxi! The flight was delayed. We finally got seated on the plane, both Tom, and I fell asleep ... read more

India for the second time - we were quite curious what India had to offer us this time. It started with a strange and complicated flight: Zurich to Amann, Amman to Dubai, Dubai to Mumbai due to some flight changes. I (Nina) was travelling nearly 3 weeks in advance for another ayurvedic treatment. Markus will join me for the last days of the treatment and after we will go on the road together for another 3 weeks. It was pleasantly cool when I stepped out of the plane in the morning in Mumbai. Happy that my luggage had arrived with me, I took it slowly. I was tired from the night in the planes and airports and not really ready to face the famous taxi hassle in Mumbai. Luckily, the arrival hall was empty. So I ... read more

Absolutely unplanned! This is how I would describe my trip to Adarki (110 KM off Pune). Adarki is a very small village located in the Satara district of Maharashtra, on route to Kolhapur. Adarki has one of the sharpest curves (the horseshoe curve) on the Indian railway network and is very famous amongst the rail fans, and it is also a paradise for trekkers as it is surrounded by the Western ghats (the Sahyadri mountain range). Besides, I wanted to explore the Pune-Miraj meter gauge route that had been closed down after gauge conversion in 1972. The new broad gauge line is laid upon the old MG alignment which is why there are a lot of spectacular curves and steep gradients. To trek this place, I was told to prepare at least a week prior but ... read more

This is my first ever blog. 3rd December,2014,a normal weekday in the city of mumbai; a regular working day for everyone.. It had been 7 days since I was stuck in the 4 walls of my house due to my fever. Finally recovered,time to get out of the house. First day out, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend 3 hours in college. This was rather an unplanned ride. Most wouldn't consider this a perfect travel blog entry, since neither does it involve any special destination, nor a real tour; and I would agree with them but then sometimes, even the smallest of travels leave back something to share, and this ride is no different. I set out early morning, about 6:30, regular college time and decided to go bandra instead; companions, My ... read more

Another v busy day. Took a ferry to Alibag which cut a 3 hour road journey to 45 mins boat ride. At the end of the jetty on arrival were lots of 'tuktuks' to take visitors onwards. It makes sense as most people don't have cars and are v cheap. Motorcycles are everywhere and we have seen whole families on one motorbike! We travelled through some villages and were able to see that the old ways still thrive. The Benei Yisrael Jews left Israel 2000 years ago after the 2nd temple was destroyed. They were shipwrecked and lost everything except for 7 couples who survived. Because they had no sefer Torah or religious books, they began to lose their Judaism. But about 1000 years ago Eliyahu Hanavi returned to earth to tell them to improve their ... read more

Mumbai is a fascinating city. A real mix of new and old, busy roads, large open spaces for leisure, nice shops and street sellers. Roads are v congested, mainly with little black and yellow cabs, motor cycles and bikes all jostling to keep moving. pedestrian crossing points are far and few between so people just walk in the road and cross whenever... Somehow it works and at least traffic keeps moving instead of having to stop at crossings! Friday we visited Elephanta Island, on the way our boat was stopped by the police twice for security checks. The island which is full of monkeys, has man made caves containing enormous carvings of Hindu gods. Made centuries ago and very impressive. On the way back we visited the magnificent Taj hotel and the Gateway to India in ... read more

Our 9 hour BA flight passed quite pleasantly with two decent kosher meals and unlimited films. We landed at 12.20am and were at our hotel around 2am, passing the new city buildings, the shanty towns and finally those sleeping on the streets. At breakfast we came across the vegetarian green dot system which helped decide what we could eat. Then we met our guide Chitra who turns out to be a most wonderful, energetic and informative young lady who has made it a mission in her life, for reasons she doesn't understand, to specialise in jewish India tours. So today, after only 4 hours sleep and 5:30 hours lost in time zones, we were introduced to the diverse, busy, exciting city of Mumbai. We saw 4 shuls, saw how workers get their homemade lunches delivered to ... read more

Murud, maharashtra For The Lord Ganesh holiday ( long weekend) of September 6-8 a group of teachers decided to rent a bus and head out to Murud off the western coast of India about four hours outside of Mumbai. We left Saturday morning at around 7 AM after several pickup locations ( first satellite towers then Oberoi woods and finally Elanza, my building!) The morning was chilly and wet as it had rained the night before. We rode on the highway towards South West Mumbai. The bus ride was smooth and uneventful some people slept while others were goofing around and listening to music. We stop for breakfast at McDonalds (yuk) I guess working with American teachers I have to accept their choice of food:-( they ate there while I drank coffee and took some photos ... read more

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in...more history